Women’s History Month July 2, 2007
Posted by Linda in : history, pshe , add a comment 
Women’s History Month, originally uploaded by Girl Least Likely To.
1st (Year 2) grade students wrote what they wanted to be when they grew up and they used these great women’s stories of their own achievements as an inspiration. The teacher posted pictures and information on great women like Amelia Earhart,Toni Morrison,& Madame C.J.Walker to name a few
I like the way this display has mixed the stories of the famous women with the children’s aspirations for the future. It changes the board from being about ‘people from long ago’ to something the children can feel they are a part of .
I’d like to think the teacher had included work from both genders but I believe it was a ‘girls only’ display. How do other people feel about this? Is it justified to exclude the work of part of a class from a display?
Why shouldn’t the boys too have learned about and been inspired by these famous women?
The Great Fire of London April 25, 2007
Posted by Linda in : history , 2comments
I like this display from Clare in the Sparklebox Displays Gallery. The use of a black background with the red mounting and border emphasises the dramatic nature of the subject. I think the flame shaped ‘fast facts’ work well too. I’d like to have seen the children’s work mounted onto red too and perhaps even shaped like the facts. It might be petty of me but I’d also like the work to be either lined up straight or deliberately skewed - just off square grates on my visual senses
The Great Fire of London is an important topic for Year 2 history. The QCA guidelines give a good framework for dealing with what could be a difficult subject for Keystage 1 and seem to have the level about right.
With more TAs finding themselves teaching classes like History to cover PPA time I think we’ll see lessons sticking even closer to the QCA. It would be a shame though if they didn’t take the chance to explore some of the more interesting web based resources for the topic.
- The Museum of London has a Day by Day guide to the fire which is a bit like a blog.
- Samuel Pepys is an interesting site but it’s going to need a lot of interpreting for Year 2
- There are also some basic free downloads relating to the topic to use in displays available on the Sparklebox web site.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day January 15, 2007
Posted by lmhartley in : Seasonal, history , add a comment 
Martin Luther King Jr., originally uploaded by ppv918.
Today is MLK Day in the USA. It’s a day of service and giving to the community. There are lots of related resouces at ActivityVillage (a UK site) which might also be useful for Black History Month in the UK.
Patricia writes:
Our bulletin board for Martin Luther King, Jr. The children wrote down their dreams on the wings of the doves. I think it came out beautiful. Let me know what you think.
I like it very much and I think the simple design works well. What do others think?
Romans and competitions August 20, 2006
Posted by lmhartley in : history , add a comment
Last January this Roman display won a competition for the best display at in a thread at the TA Chat Forum. I was pleased to have won the right to put a nice image in my sig for a while and the children involved in creating the display were excited to hear that their display was voted the winner.
This competition, however, is for a rather more substantial reward!
Belair publishes a vast range of books about display. (See the books page in my sidebar for some examples.)
Belair Display of the Year Competition 2006
A WINNING DISPLAY!
Belair and Junior Education are delighted to give you the opportunity to WIN ALL THE BELAIR COLLECTIONS!We are looking for the best displays of 2006, illustrating the real passion and talent that goes into exhibiting pupils’ work in the classroom and around the school.Have you and your pupils created a masterpiece that deserves greater recognition? If so, you could be our 2006 winner!
Winning displays will be featured in Junior Education and on the Folens website. The competition is open to both teachers and teaching assistants and the only limitation is your own ingenuity!
EASY TO ENTER
Simply photograph a display you have put up in your school and email it to: belair@folens.com or post your photo toBelair
Unit 20 Apex Business Centre
Boscombe Road
Dunstable
Beds
LU5 4RLEntries will be judged by a panel of Belair authors and Junior Education. Closing date for entries is 17th November 2006.
They then go on to list a quite extensive criteria set which is worth a read in it’s own right as a bench mark for judging the quality of your displays.
So if you’ve got a suitable display or you can get one up by then why not have a go? Your school stands to win a spectacular and inspiring resource library and it might just inspire you to come up with your most impressive displays ever
Viking_invasion March 17, 2006
Posted by lmhartley in : history , 1 comment so far
Viking_invasion, originally uploaded by LMH_.
I’m thinking what to do for our Viking display in year3. This longship might be a good starting point. I’ve done it before, when I was working in year 3 last, the year before this one was made, but I don’t seem to have a photo of it. The shields are paper plates than the sail is a painted sheet. Making the prow was great fun the year we did it and I know someone in year 3 who draws great dragons! I’ll post the photo in a few weeks when we move back to our old classroom.
Update: 2007. I’ve moved on but my replacement will be starting this display soon. (These are for you Janet!) So here are a few photos to show the display in progress.
The prow is made with crumpled brown tissue paper soaked in diluted PVA (1:3) stuck onto card - we had a good chat about why Vikings had a beast at the front of the ship whilst we did this:
The boat is painted paper and the sail is painted cloth. (I kept our sail - try the store cupboard)
The 3d effect is enhanced by making a card support to attach the boat to the board. It involved some creative use of the staple gun and a cunningly hidden cardboard box stapled to the middle of the board
